


a thousand miles out

by silvering



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Angst, Drunken Confessions, Kinda, M/M, Misunderstandings, Mutual Pining, Other Characters Are Mentioned, Unresolved Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-03
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:41:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25456411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silvering/pseuds/silvering
Summary: "What’s so funny, big guy?” Donghyuck grunts, pushing at Mark’s side in a futile attempt to nudge Mark off him. Instead, Mark huffs a breath of warm air onto Donghyuck’s collarbone and buries his face deeper into his neck. Donghyuck shivers.How does he go about convincing his drunk, clingy best friend that he's been in love with for years to kindly stop– well, stoptouchinghim? It’s all very overwhelming.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Comments: 14
Kudos: 181





	a thousand miles out

“Haha,” Mark slurs, body draped across Donghyuck’s chest. The party has wound down by now, most of their friends already having headed home or retreated to locked bedrooms to make drunken decisions they’ll agonize over come morning. 

It’s just Donghyuck and Mark left in the living room. The lights are dimmed, plastic cups and bottle caps littering the floor. The area is pretty much trashed, honestly, but this is Johnny-hyung’s house so Donghyuck doesn’t really care.

“Yeah? What’s so funny, big guy?” Donghyuck grunts, pushing at Mark’s side in a futile attempt to nudge Mark off him. Instead, Mark huffs a breath of warm air onto Donghyuck’s collarbone and buries his face deeper into his neck. Donghyuck shivers.

How does he go about convincing his drunk, clingy best friend that they’ve been in love with for years to kindly stop– well, stop _touching_ him? It’s all very overwhelming.

“This is soooo gay.”

Donghyuck shoves ineffectually at Mark’s shoulder. “Yes, Mark. This is very gay. Because we just so happen to _be_ gay.”

Mark pauses, lifting his head from where it had been buried in the crook of Donghyuck’s neck to blink blearily up at him. “Wait....” he says. His eyes are wide and confused and sparkling just a little despite the alcohol in his system. If he wasn’t already, Donghyuck would be so beyond fucked. “Really?”

“Yes,” Donghyuck bites out impatiently. “Unless you were lying when you came out to all our friends, because I am definitely one hundred percent gay. Now get off me, you’re heavy.”

“Wait, like, that’s a thing? Being gay? Really being gay?” Mark furrows his brow. Though Donghyuck is currently doing his best to unattach this– this _barnacle_ of a human being from him, he can’t help but find Mark’s pouting adorable. 

_Ah, the curse of love._

“I thought it was a joke,” Mark continues hazily.

Donghyuck scoffs. “You thought being gay was a what?”

“A joke!” Mark flails his arms weakly. “You know, like, _haha I love you man_ for when you don’t want your bro to know you actually, like, _love_ -love them.”

 _Mark Lee_ , Donghyuck thinks exasperatedly. Just when he thinks Mark can’t get any more unreal, he goes and pulls something like this. A _joke_? Really? He isn’t even making sense.

“Well, maybe you should locate your balls and tell the bros that you actually do _love_ -love them, cause newsflash! Toxic masculinity is bullshit.”

“Nooooo, no no no. Like, yeah, like, fuck toxic mass- mass... mass-linity and everything, but I’m talking about one specific bro. That I’ve love-loved for, like, _ever_. You know?” he widens his eyes meaningfully at Donghyuck, who stares blankly back.

“So it’s like– it’s like a way to make sure he doesn’t actually think I _love_ -love him,” Mark finishes, slurring a bit.

“I think you’re describing _no homo_ , Mark, not being gay,” Donghyuck says dryly. He doesn’t catch Mark’s answer, thoughts already spinning away.

Mark has a crush on one of their friends?

Donghyuck is sure he knows them. Mark doesn’t have that many friends outside their little group, and anyone Mark knows, Donghyuck knows. They’ve been called inseparable, joined at the hip, overly attached to each other, every synonym under the sun for _completely and totally unable to be parted from one another_ —so if Mark _love_ -loves a so-called _bro_ , Donghyuck _has_ to know them.

It can’t be Taeyong or Johnny, they’ve been pining after each other since the dawn of time. It can’t be Jaehyun, either, everyone has been watching him and Doyoung dance around each other for months since their breakup. It’s a constant and unfailing source of gossip (and headaches), actually. 

Yuta and Sicheng are completely wrapped up in each other, and Renjun and Jaemin and Jeno are so besotted with each other it’s actually gross, so that leaves... 

Jungwoo?

It’s not impossible, Donghyuck reasons. Jungwoo is sweet and supportive and fucking _funny_ , and if there’s one thing Donghyuck knows Mark finds attractive, it’s a good sense of humor. Mark likes to laugh.

Jungwoo makes Mark laugh a lot, Donghyuck notes grimly.

Or it could be Lucas. Lucas is funny in the way an overgrown puppy is: clumsy, eager, and sweet. Mark _also_ laughs a lot when Lucas is around. 

Donghyuck presses his lips into a thin line.

… Okay. Donghyuck can handle that. He can be a good best friend and handle the fact that Mark “I’m not interested in dating, seriously, Hyuck, stop setting me up” Lee apparently has a crush. 

A crush.

Mark Lee.

On one of their friends.

That’s been going on for, like, _ever_.

Okay, maybe Donghyuck isn’t handling this as well as he could be.

For a moment, Donghyuck entertains the stupid and delusional hope that oh, maybe it’s him!—before dismissing it. Donghyuck isn’t a fool, no matter how many times Renjun jabs him in the ribs and calls him one. There is no way— _no fucking way_ —Mark Lee has a crush on him. He’s made it abundantly clear that Donghyuck is his best friend and that his love for him is purely and totally platonic.

Giving up isn’t like Donghyuck. It’s just not in his DNA. He’s competitive to a fault, he likes to win, and he can admit that he doesn’t always take defeat gracefully.

Mark Lee is the exception.

Donghyuck likes to win, but he’d rather never win Mark’s heart than lose his friendship.

“Hyuckieeee,” Mark whines petulantly. He pokes Donghyuck in the side, jolting him out of his thoughts.

“What do you want,” Donghyuck grumbles. His mood has plummeted from mild gay irritation to full-on gay misery, and he resumes the thus far unsuccessful fight to get Mark off him.

“I just,” Mark exhales heavily. A whoosh of warm air puffs onto the side of Donghyuck's neck, and he tries not to let it affect him. “I just really love-love him.”

“Yeah?” Donghyuck grunts, wiggling an arm between their chests to try and shove Mark onto the space on the couch beside him.

“Yeah. I'm, like, _in_ love-love with him.”

Donghyuck’s heart twists. He clenches his jaw tightly, suddenly wishing with every fiber of his being that he was anywhere but here. Anywhere but stuck under Mark fucking Lee, the stupid love of his life that has been _in love_ -love with someone else for, like, _ever_. 

Stupid Mark Lee, that will never love Donghyuck the way he wants.

Donghyuck wriggles his other arm under Mark’s chest and shoves, and finally, _finally_ , Mark is off him.

“Jesus fuck,” Donghyuck groans. He sucks in a deep breath, releasing it all at once.

“What?” Mark says from where he’s sprawled on his back beside Donghyuck. He tries not to miss Mark’s solid weight, tries to pry his eyes away from the cute wrinkle between Mark’s brows. He isn’t very successful.

Donghyuck sighs. “Let's get you home, loser,” he mutters, bitterly resigned. Because even when all he wants to do is curl up in a little ball and drown in self-pity and ignore the rest of the world, Mark Lee is the exception.

Mark Lee is always the exception.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading!! uhh yeah i had a super hard time writing in the same style for the second chapter of this, i’m not quite sure where the voice in the first chapter came from? but i hope this chapter wasn’t too far off ;;;
> 
> comments are kudos are very much appreciated, and thank you again for reading!!

**Author's Note:**

> wrote this instead of the zine final due yesterday and uhh i kinda regret it but i hope y'all liked it at least qwq
> 
> the title is from [never let me go](https://youtu.be/zMBTvuUlm98) by florence + the machine.
> 
> thank you for reading!! comments and kudos are much appreciated~ <3


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